Lots of good posts, by and large. Some I disagree with. Peace, you were spot on that the parents were clueless. Ranger Steve, right on.

Let's assume that those parents were unable to get someone to mind their charge and he had to accompany them to the hospital. From the pusillaminous utterences you get a very clear clue as to what parenting skills these folks had: NONE. Outrageous threats that even a three year old could see would never be carried out. Just a little verbal dance and business as usual. That is to say that the parents had abdicated their parental responsibilities.

As I said in the spank/nospank thread lack of discipline, appeasement, empty threats and the like proves to your child that YOU DON'T CARE about him. You don't love him.

Further proof of these clods indifference is that they didn't care about the other people around them and what THEIR condition(s) may be. and they were perfectly willing to make a boogey man out of Santa Claus and a Witch out of the nurse, just so they would not be percieved as the real bad guys in the situation.

One parent simply taking the child out side to play or walk on the grounds would have been a sufficient and caring resolution to the scenario. Many other creative and caring resolutions could be advanced. These people were clueless and unfortunately there are many who are taking the same path with regards to childrearing.